Isshin
by The Itch
Summary: Bleach drabbles, centered on Kurosaki Isshin. Not nessecarily all set in the same 'verse, and containing spoilers.
1. Everything For Love

**1.**

**Title:** Everything for Love  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Word Count:** 600  
**Warning/s:** Spoilers for after Soul Society Arc  
**Summary:** Isshin thinks about everything that lead to this moment  
**Dedication:** To anyone who was a fan of Isshin _before_ chapter 186. I can't have been the only one.  
**A/N:** I've been planning a bunch of Isshin drabbles for awhile-- before I got off my ass and decided to read what had been released by manga-subbers online, actually. Which just made a few of my ideas go out the window, and others get seriously revamped. And last night my mother was an hour late in picking me up, so I had the time to write this. Enjoy.

* * *

He told them he didn't see ghosts. He made a production out of it, wailing and wishing so badly that he wanted to have the ability that so precious few did. His actions and words so over the top that not one of them had noticed.

They didn't notice as his eyes tracked the specters that followed his son and daughters. Did not notice when a spirit suddenly stopped being quite so abrasive or annoying. After awhile, he didn't even have to be secretive about it; no one expected him to see or sense anything.

Though the outrageous acts had continued. Loud and boisterous... she had loved that. Masaki's compliments for him may have been few and far between, but that look in her eyes...! He had done everything he could for her. He had given up his life, and learned to live in her world. No backwards glances, no hesitation. For Masaki it was all or nothing.

And had done it all. For her, he stopped being what had been his sole dream all his life.

He was practically a traitor. Twenty years without touching his Zanpakutou, twenty years of standing by and allowing Hollows to kill mortals and eat souls.

He supposed it was karmic justice that his beautiful wife had died by the very hands that he had allowed to terrorize the world. Ichigo thought to take the blame upon himself, but an untrained nine-year old shinigami locked into a mortal body? There was nothing that the child could have done.

Isshin blamed himself; he was captain class. He could have saved her, if only he hadn't been so stalwart in maintaining his human image. If he hadn't vowed to himself to never change back, to never fight, to never be found...

After her death, he threw himself into caring for his children. Always playing the fool, always trying to keep their minds off the past. It would not do to dwell, he had learned the hard way. Highly spiritual mortals, let alone the children of a captain-class shinigami, would always be targets, but as long as they did not stand out, they would be safe.

So Isshin stood out for them.

When the Shinigami-girl showed up, Isshin had been prepared to turn himself in, thinking that she had come for him. But there was no recognition in her eyes, and once more he played the fool.

He watched as Ichigo grew in those four short weeks. He grew and became the man that Isshin had always known was there. The man that he had tried so hard, and so very long, to prevent Ichigo from becoming. He did not wish for his son to live that life. Not that he would or could ever tell him that.

So when the girl vanished back into Soul Society, and Ichigo's powers seemed to be jumping all over the place, Isshin said nothing.

But he broke his vow to himself. He would not allow another beloved family member to die at the hands of a Hollow. So while his son trained, Isshin contacted Urahara Kisuke. He made a deal, and purchased the required "ingredients". He fashioned a ward.

Which led him to his current place, sitting up here on the roof and waiting for Ichigo to leave the house. Urahara's amusing brand of messaging people was hard not to notice, especially by someone who had been on the receiving end of it several times two decades earlier.

Ears pricked as the front door opened. Isshin peeked over the edge of the roof. There was his son.

"Good Morning Ichigo!"

**END**


	2. It's the Little Things

**2.**

**Title:** It's the Little Things  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Word Count**:500  
**Warning/s:** Spoilers for after Soul Society Arc  
**Summary:** Isshin does something stupid, in order to become human  
**Dedication:** To the lovers of crazy crossovers.  
**A/N:** Someone help me. Please? This crossover doesn't make any logical sense, considering that Ichigo is fifteen, and there's only about eight/ten years between the end of Ranma and the beginning of Bleach. However, it wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it; it's been bugging me since way back in chapter one, when Isshin first 'greets' Ichigo. So... here it is. Hopefully to never come knocking again.

* * *

It was a hit-and-miss prospect. The body ceased functioning, the brain began to die, and the soul was released from its host. He had to time everything down to the exact second, in order to send the soul off to Soul Society, and leave the body intact and capable of hosting a soul. There were only moments where it was still possible for the body to take in a new soul chain of fate had been cut. Without a Shinigami present to 'help', even the original soul could not return to the body.

He had missed six times now, but he was nothing if not stubborn. He would do this. He would get a mortal body. And dammit, he would meet that girl face-to-face!

He had been sending off some old woman, when he'd overheard talk of the cursed springs, and a father-son pair headed in that direction. He had finished with the woman-- perhaps a bit more quickly than protocol dictated-- and took off towards the springs. He knew damn well how they trapped unwary souls; the screams of trapped Hollows echoed through the valley, disturbing anyone with enough spiritual density to be able to hear them.

It was not a very pleasant way to go-- drowning and then becoming a Hollow, trapped by the kidou that had made the spring. The Shinigami of China were a malicious group, and the only reason he wasn't getting in trouble with them was because he was only taking care of the Japanese on their soil.

Otherwise, he would never have had this chance; he could only hope that the father-son group was Japanese. It would be a nightmare to get into a battle with a Chinese Shinigami, captain-class or not.

He didn't know if he wanted the pair to die or not, though. Sure, if one of them died, he would get his chance but... well, a life cut short was a life cut short, and that was never really something to be _happy_ about. In the end, though, he just tried not to think about it.

When the boy went under the water, he had gotten into position right above the spring. When his soul started to free itself from his body, Isshin moved like he had never moved before. He _had_ to be faster than the magic of the springs. He just _had_ to be-- though it was close. The butt of his Zanpakutou smacked the ghost dead center of his forehead as the mystic chains attempted to snap into place.

The ghost was gone, and the body's half of the chain of fate was quickly vanishing. He lunged for it, forcing his own spiritual essence into it, and anchored it to himself. For once, it worked. His soul locked into mortal flesh.

Rising to the surface, the captain-class shinigami sputtered and coughed. He looked down at himself in shock. Tore open his shirt.

Of all the...! Why did the kid have to die in Spring of Drowned Girl?

**END**


End file.
